The War Poets and the Diary of an Ordinary Tommy: Convergence, Class and Transmission

The book is a highly original and personal response to the diary of an RAMC soldier recording his experiences at the Somme and Arras. Written by his granddaughter, who never knew him, she has followed in his footsteps during the engagements of 1916 and 1917, from the front lines to rest places and transit camps. She draws on her encounters with local people, whose memories are still alive, to write a compelling narrative which combines history and poetry to convey ‘the truth about war’. Not the least surprising element in the narrative is the link she draws between her own literary vocation and the first stirrings of poetry, a hundred years ago, in a working-class soldier whose experiences, through a new cultural awakening, transcended the horrors of war.

The author's career has been devoted to the service of literature and cross-cultural understanding, both as a university teacher and as a writer. She is bilingual and publishes in both English and French. She has published widely in the field of her doctoral research on Mauriac and Bergson, on inter-cultural communication, and on a range of contemporary European novelists. She has been a founder member of various associations and journals in which she has played leadership and editorial roles, most notably, the Association Européenne FranÃ§ois Mauriac which has been a focus of her activity during the last 30 years. It has members in 18 countries and its annual conferences focus on the modern European literary scene. (association europeennefrancoismauriact.blogspot.com/) Her current writing is veering more towards fiction, poetry and memoir, religion and literary aesthetics. She is a great lover of French rural life.